Means for guiding and retaining the lower edges of freight-car doors.



E. A. HILL. MEANS FOR GUIDING AND RETAINING THE LOWER EDGES 0F FREIGHTGAR DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, 1910.

Patented Ndv.7,1911.

5 SHEETSSHEET 1.

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COLUMBIA PLANOQRAPH C0..WASmNd1'nN. 0 10.

E. A. HILL. MEANS FOR GUIDING AND RETAINING THE LOWER EDGES 0F FREIGHTGAR DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9. 1910.

Patented Nov. 7,1911.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

F m E IIII I/III III I E. A. HILL. MEANS FOR GUIDING AND RETAINING THELOWER EDGES 0F FREIGHT GAR DOORS.

1,007,695. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, 1910. Patented NOV. 7, 1911' I 5SHEETS-SHEET 3.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH (20., WASHINGTON. D. c.

E. 'A. HILL. 1 MEANS FOR GUIDING AND RETAINING THE LOWER EDGES 0FFREIGHT GAR DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, 1910. 1,007,695. Pa n ed N0 .7, 1911.

6 SHEETSSHEET 4.

COLUMBIA PLANDCIRAPH (20., WASHINGTON. D. c.

E. A. HILL. 1 MEANS POR'GUIDiNG AND RETAINING THE LOWER EDGES o1"FREIGHT GAR 1100115.

APPLIOATION'IILBD NOV. 9, 1910. 1,007,695. Pat nted Now, 1911.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5. 156x914.

UITED STTS ATE EDWARD A. HILL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO CHICAGOCAR DOOR COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

MEANS FOR GUIDING AND RETAINING THE LOWER EDGES OF FREIGHT-CAB, DOORS.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented N ov. '7, 1911.

Application filed November 9, 1910. Serial No. 591,467.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD A. HILL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Guiding andRetaining the Lower Edges of Freight- Car Doors, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to freight car doors and retaining means for thesame, and particularly to doors of the sort adapted to be suspended attheir upper margins so as to be slidable back and forth over the dooropening; and the invention has for its object the provision of the loweredge of a door of this character, and the parts of the car body adjacentthereto, with certain cooperating devices of novel and improvedconstruction, and arrangedin a novel manner, adapted to guide the doorin its movements back and forth, and to retain it in proper place withrelation to the car when in its open and closed positions.

The invention has for a further object to provide a novel and improvedform of apparatus of this character which shall be simple, strong,durable and cheap to manufacture, and which, in particular, shall becompact in respect to the arrangement of the retaining devices relativeto the door and car body; it being undesirable to employ any devices forthis purpose which project appreciably beyond the plane of the doorbecause of the consequent efiective widening of the car and because ofthe liability of such projecting parts to be knocked off or injured.

The invention has for further objects the several novel constructions,arrangements and devices in retaining and guiding means for doors whichwill be hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention is illustrated in a preferred form, and in certainmodifications thereof, in the accompanying drawings, wherein-- Figure 1is a fragmentary side elevation of a car; Fig. 2, a sectional plan-takenon line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a similar sectional plan showing the doorin a different position from that of the preceding two figures; Fig. 4,a fragmentary elevation illustrating, on an enlarged scale, the devicesshown at the right hand corner of Fig.

3; Fig. 5, a sectional plan taken on line 55 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6, asectional View taken online 66 of Fig. 4 looking in the direction of thearrows; Fig. 7, a perspective view of what I have termed the nose piece,in its preferred form; Fig. 8, a fragmentary elevation of the back sideof the door showing this part attached to the door; Fig. 9, alongitudinal sectional View taken through the nose piece; Fig. 10, afragmentary elevation of the parts at the forward side of the doorway;Fig. 11, a sectional plan taken on line 11-11 of Fig. 10; Fig. 12, avertical section taken on line 1212 of Fig. 10, looking in the directionof the arrows; Fig. 18, a fragmentary view in perspective showingparticularly a modified form of retaining device; Fig. 14, a fragmentaryelevation illustrating a modified form of nose piece, the retainingdevice being also somewhat difierent from those shown in Figs. 1 to 12inclusive; Fig. 15, a sectional plan taken on line 1515 of Fig. 14; Fig.16, a side elevation of the retaining device of Figs. 14 and 15, lookingtoward the opening of the same, and Fig. 17 a View in perspective of thenose piece shown in Figs. 14 and 15.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts in the several figuresof the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, 20 designates the side sheathing of the car,21 the sill at this side, 22 the flooring, 23, 24 the door posts, 25 thedoor, and 26 the stop strip at the forward door post. It will beunderstood that the door is supported at the top by any suitable meanspermitting it to be slid back and forth across the door opening. Thisapparatus forms no part of my present invention and therefore is notshown nor described.

The means for guiding and retaining the lower edge of the door, whichconstitutes my present invention, consists of a set of brackets orretaining devices secured to the side of the car, one of these devicesbeing located at the forward door post, another at the rear door post,and the third at a place on the side of the car back of the rear doorpost; and of suitable means on the forward and rear edges of the dooradapted to cooperate with the retaining devices or brackets attached tothe car body. It will be understood, however, that while the completeequipmentincludes all of the devices above mentioned, it will bepossible to utilize only some of these devices, that is to say, toemploy certain features only of my invention without employing them allin combination, as is preferable.

The bracket at the forward door post is preferably quite similar inconstruction to the bracket which receives the back edge of the doorwhen in its open position, though as shown it is not preciselyidentical. The

device or nose piece on the forward edge of the door is, by preference,the same as that on the rear edge. Therefore I will first describe indetail one pair of these devices, namely, the pair which come intocooperation when the door is opened, and will afterward allude to theslightly different form of bracket at the forward door post; with theunderstanding, however, that identical brackets might be used at bothplaces.

The bracket, in question, designated as a whole by letter A, consist-s,preferably, of an attaching plate 27 which is secured to the car sill bybolts 28, 29 and 30, the latter bolt being preferably protected, thatis, prevented from being unscrewed, by the flanges or ribs 31 on plate27; of a horizontal web 32 extending from said plate 27, an upwardlyextending lip 33 at the front edge of web 82, the web or lip 34 beingpreferably a continuation of lip 33. Lip 33 stands preferably oblique tothe plane of the door, as shown. The bracket is preferably secureddirect to the sill, the sheathing being cut out at this point, asindicated in Figs. 1, 4t and 5.

To cooperate with the bracket above described, the door is provided atits rear edge, preferably at the lower corner thereof, with a nosepiece, designated generally by the letter B, consisting in its preferredform, of an attaching plate or member 35 perforated so as to be securedto the door by the bolts 36, and an inwardly off-set portion 37terminating in a preferably wedge shaped 01' tapered nose 38. Thisdevice is secured to the door by cut-ting away a portion of thesheathing 39 of the door, the recess so formed making place for theoff-set portion 37 of the nose piece. The nose piece, for purposes ofreinforcement and secure attachment to the door, is preferably formedwith a web or plate 40 which extends under the sheathing adjacent therecess and under the frame work 41 of the door. The off-set portion 37of the nose piece is preferably formed with a square recess 42 adaptedto receive the nut 43 (Fig. 6) on the attaching bolt 4%. A web or strip15 extends around the edge face of the door above the nose 38, whichlatter preferably projects beyond the vertical edge face of the door.Preferably the web 34: of the retaining bracket is formed with aprojection 46 which keeps the door from being forced too close to thecar. This is desirable in any case, but particularly, when the door isprovided at its rear edge, as shown, with the closing strip 41-7intended to engage with a suitable strip 41:8 (Figs. 2 and 3), or otherequivalent device, on the door post 24. When the door is provided withthis strip 47, if it were not held from swing ing inwardly, the strip 47might be crushed or injured by contact with the side of the car. Thepurpose of strip a8 is primarily to close the crack between the rearedge of the door and the door post, when the door is in its closedposition. It also, however, serves as means for guiding the door whenbeing moved to and from its extreme open position, and, with this inview, the portion of the strip 49 which is in-turned back of the door,is formed with a curved or rounded surface 50 which allows the part toslide easily over the sheathing of the car without damage.

I do not claim herein the closing strip 17 nor specifically the form ofbracket A by which a pocket is provided for the nose 38 so that theclosing strip 47 is held away from the side of the car, as thiscombination is claimed in my pending application Serial No. 642,561,filed August 5, 1911.

On the rear door post 2 1 is a bracket G of familiar construction,through which the door is slid when being opened and closed. The nosepiece above described is preferably formed with a wedge 51 which engageswith the bracket C when the door is slid to its closed position so as tohold the rear corner of the door firmly in position with relation to thecar.

The complete equipment of the door with guiding means, in accordancewith my invention, contemplates also the use of a bracket D at theforward door post 23, which device may, however, be slightly dif' ferentin form from the retaining device A; and the employment of a nose pieceE, like the nose piece B, above described, on the forward lower cornerof the door.

In Figs. 10 to 12 inclusive, I have illustrated the preferredconstruction of the bracket D at the forward side of the door way. As inthe particular construction of car chosen for the purpose ofillustrating the application of my invent-ion, the door posts projectbeyond the side sheathing of the car, the forward bracket D is set intothe recess 21 in the filler strip 21 on the sill 21. The forward edge ofthe door, when closed, comes against the door post 23. Therefore it isnot necessary to form the bracket D with the web or lug 16 of the rearretaining device or bracket A. The bracket D is in other respectsconstructed exactly the same as bracket A, and is attached to the car inthe same manner. The nose piece E may be identical in form with the nosepiece B at the rear edge of the door. In order to give a finishedappearance to the car at the place where the bracket D is attached, theattaching plate 27 of the bracket may be covered by the wooden filler21* which is set into the filler strip 21 so as to be flush with theouter surface thereof and with the surface of the door post 23. It willbe understood that the above arrangements which are suitableparticularly for the construction of car shown, might be varied with theapplication ofthe device of my invention to a car built on a difierentplan. With the car so equipped, it will be seen'that when the door isopened the nose 38 on nose piece B, in cooperation with the oblique lip33 of the bracket A, guides the rear edge of the door into andsubsequently retains the same securely in proper position with respectto the car. At the same time, the wedge 51 (Figs. 1, 2 and 3) on thenose piece E, engages the bracket C so as to hold the forward edge ofthe door securely in position. When the door is closed the engagement ofcorresponding parts of the nose piece B and bracket C, and nose piece Eand bracket D, effects the same guiding and subsequent securepositioning of the door. It will be observed that the brackets A and Dproject but very little, if any, beyond the front surface of the door.This makes the arrangement a very compact one. When the door is closed,the in-turned portion 49 of strip 47 extends around the strip 48 on doorpost 24 and prevents any rain, snow, dust, cinders, or sparks fromentering the doorway at this place. The configuration of the inturnedportion 49 of strip 47 prevents this part of the structure from injuringthe sheathing of the car when the door is pushed back and forth, and, infact, serves as a guide to steady the movements of the door when nearits extreme open position. It will be understood that doors of this sortare ordinarily hung somewhat loosely from the car.

In Fig. 13, I have shown a modified form of bracket consisting of anelongated plate or strip 52 perforated with the bolt holes 53, fromwhich extends the lip 54 formed with the oblique surface 55 adapted tobe engaged by the nose 56v of the nose piece 57, a portion of which onlyis shown. The bracket is preferably formed with the recess 58 to receivethe end of nose 56.

In Figs. 14 to 17 inclusive, I have shown a modified arrangement of thebracket and nose piece which does not involve cutting out the corner ofthe door. The nose piece F in this case consists of a strip 59 formedwith the wedges 60 and perforated with the bolt holes 61; and of a nose62 which lies entirely beyond the edge face of the door. The device isreinforced by a triangular web or plate 63 which underlies the corner ofthe door. -Nose 62 engages the oblique lip 64 of a retaining bracket Gformed preferably with a stop web 65 for the end of the nose piece.

While I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention, and haveindicated certain possible modifications thereof, it will be understoodthat other changes in form, proportion, arrangement and construction ofthe devices constituting the apparatus might be made without departurefrom my invention. Therefore I do not limit myself to the particularsdescribed and claimed except so far as certain of the same are madespecifically limitations on certain of the claims herein.

It will be seen, in the preferred construction and arrangement shown,that the nose piece, in effect, constitutes a double wedge, one wedgesurface being on the outer face of the door and adapted to engage withthe bracket 0 through which the door slides, and the other wedge beingat the edge of the door, although it may be set back more or less intothe body of the door, and adapted to engage, with the door in anotherposition, with a suitable bracket arranged substantially back of theplane of the outer surface of the door.

I claim:

1. The combination with a sliding door, of a nose piece at one verticaledge of the door provided with a projecting nose, and a bracket adaptedto receive said nose.

2. The combination with a sliding door, of a nose piece at one verticaledge of the door provided with a projecting nose and with a wedge, abracket adapted to receive said nose, at one position of the door, and abracket adapted to be engaged by said wedge at another position of thedoor.

3. The combination with a sliding door, of a nose piece at one verticaledge of the door provided with a projecting nose and with a wedge, abracket adapted to receive said nose, at one position of the door, abracket adapted to be enga ed by said wedge at another position of t edoor, and a web on said nose piece which underlies the lower edge faceof the door.

4. The combination with a sliding door having a recess at one lowercorner, a nose piece secured to the outer face of the door provided withan off-set part which lies in said recess, a bracket adapted to beengaged by the off-set portion of said nose piece, a

wedge on said nose piece, and another bracket adapted, at anotherposition of the door, to be engaged by said wedge.

5. The combination with a sliding door cut away at one corner, of acasting at said corner having a wedge-shaped part secured to the face ofthe door, an off-set portion entering said recess formed with a taperednose, and brackets, one adapted to be engaged by said Wedge, at oneposition of the door, and the other adapted to be engaged by said Wedge,at one position of the door, and 10 Said tapered nose at anotherposition of the the other adapted to be engaged by said door. taperednose at another position of the door,

6. The combination With a sliding door and a web on said casting adaptedto undercut away at one corner, of a casting at said lie the lower edgeface of the door.

corner having a Wedge-shaped part secured EDX/VARD A. HILL. to the faceof the door, an off-setportion Witnesses:

entering said recess formed With a tapered P. H. TRUMAN,

nose brackets, one adapted to be engaged by H. S. PEoK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

